I realize that not everyone believes in God but for those who do, have you ever wondered what happens after you are done with your life on earth? By that I mean the immediate play-by-play description from the time you leave your physical, carbon-based form to the time you are settled-in to your “final resting place”?

For instance, if you are one of those who view God as the ultimate CEO/chairman of the board etc., then it would follow that rather than God personally going through, reviewing and processing each case, there would be designated beings (assigned staff, if you would) in charge of the processing, filtering and direction of folk to specific areas or level? Given how familiar we are with this set-up here on earth, why then do you pray to God directly? If you believe in multi level handlers, how then can you assume that God is personally listening to each individual prayer? How is it exactly that God has time to personally listen to your prayers if there are others set-up specifically to assume this workload?

I used to plan my year (or years) ahead, up until only a few years ago. Looking back at my dismal success-rate, I now find the very idea hilarious and absurd.

We are taught about facts at school and how following and establishing the facts will guarantee us the conclusion. Simple. Right?

Economists use facts and statistics to forecast where we are headed. Canada has a current unemployment rate of 8.4%. Some economists claim that this is not a true number as it does not track or include those folks who are no longer eligible for employment insurance, those actively looking for work or those now doing menial work, etc. Therefore, they argue, the true number is higher.

However, all economists agree that an eventual unemployment rate of 10%+ is inevitable.

But here is where things get interesting. Home and auto sales are up. How, you ask? How can the banks still be lending? How can the first-time home-buyers, for instance, qualify for any amount of mortgage, given their non-existent credit-ratings, their student loans, car loans, outstanding credit card balances and let’s not forget, lack of job security?

Well, the bandying about of facts occurs on an even larger scale, outside of our national arena. We hear about and see (on TV documentaries) about impoverished people and nations that are being raped, tortured and repressed. Most of us are too busy dealing with the corruption in our own “first-world” countries to pay any attention to these misbegotten souls, but the fact is that they are under sever pain. Ironically, all of these folks are extremely religious.

So what do we do? Are we to ignore these facts by going on about our lives,  booking our luxury vacations, purchasing our big ticket items, etc? Are we to turn to prayer, as these people have, and put our trust and faith in God? Or are we to share our good fortune with them?

I choose to share my fortune; especially if I have reason to believe that this act would lessen someone’s pain. Although I no longer rely on facts to plan my future by, I can make use of them to deal with the present. 

As for prayer, while I have nothing against it,  I have seen very little evidence of its usefulness. Therefore,  I am personally going to rely on myself first and use prayers as a back-up, should they ever be answered.